1. Attendance and Apologies

Attendance (MC): Bruce Diekman, Ashton Roskill, Anthony Taylor (Deputy), Tom Bartels, Kirsten Lunoe

Attendance (Members): Vicki D'Adam, Prema Menon, Declan Schuller, Allie Cooke (Manager) 7.15 pm, Kee Sing 7.20 pm

Apologies: Lauren Sims, Stephen Catt, Ran de Silva

2. Approval of Agenda

That the agenda be approved.

Moved: Ashton

Seconded: Bruce

Carried by consensus

3. Consent Agenda

That the consent agenda be approved.

Adoption of previous minutes - August 26th & September 29th

Moved: Tom

Seconded: Kirsten

Carried by consensus

4. Manager’s Report

The Manager has provided a Confluence report: Manager's Update October 2019 which among other things, addressed:

• Recent grant applications detailed – Allie keen for grant writing help in future, via Volunteer Teams.
• Looking for more zero waste gift idea products.
• Need to keep money aside so we can stock up for Xmas and increase the OTB for the few weeks before Xmas. Need double stock levels before Xmas as  there will also be few deliveries between Xmas and new year.
• Manager also reported on upcoming events, including workshops in November and shop 'street front' tastings.
• No back-up for the servers in the store/office and computers needing replacement – some of these problems were identified in 2016.

ACTION: IT volunteer has recommended buying 2 hard drives and taking a drive home. Allie has ordered a couple of back-up hard drives. Declan proposed more efficient 'cloud' solutions – Allie to liaise with Declan Schuller and volunteer. 

That the Manager's report be approved:

Moved: Tom

Seconded: Ashton

Carried by consensus

5. Finance report

Treasurer's Report Sept/Oct 2019

The Treasurer spoke to his report, noting:

• More improvement in management from Paulo
• Sales are flat, but gross profit increased by $7K in September – net profit for September = +$4K – sales have continued as before notwithstanding reduced staff hours.
  
• Average basket size is still around $35.
• September was the first month that trade creditor amounts have decreased, but overall debt is still at $50K, overdue accounts at $31K.
• Salaries and wages are tracking around $9.5K per fortnight (down from $14K) – great job by Allie and store team!

Ashton: Rule of adding new products is one in, one out – aim is to keep improving our stock turn and invest in higher turning stocks.

Allie: Intel from other stores – checking prices and what customers are putting in their baskets would be helpful for Paulo.

Switch in accounting firms

Sustainable Numbers has been paid out – new bookkeeper, Irena, will commence preparing the accounts and finalise the 2018/2019 end of financial year accounts.

Irena has spent several hours with Allie working on smoothing and introducing procedures to reduce time and effort and improve processes.

That the Treasurer's report be approved:

Moved: Ashton

Seconded: Anthony

Carried by consensus

6. Project review

• See: /wiki/spaces/MC/pages/295046
• Current project list needs to be reviewed and updated.
• Ashton flagged that the new freezer choice for the storeroom needs to be confirmed re: intended usage – grains could spoil in a freezer, i.e. sweat then germinate when removed from freezer.

ACTION: Proposed freezer trial – suggestion to put grain into a hessian bag may result in grain not sweating. Allie to further research and find out how other co-ops deal with the problem.

7. Review outstanding tasks

• See: Outstanding tasks - MC meetings

Status of Volunteer Teams launch:

• Next MC newsletter to announce Volunteer Teams launch and start search for members to fill identified roles.
• We need to make a big splash with multiple social media plugs & emails – Stevie Bee to be asked to design in-store sign.
• Thursday 21st November chosen as date for initial Volunteer Teams members get together.

ACTION: BD to book room (P&V preferred).

Marketing graduate Hilary Liao has agreed to help manage and direct the Marketing Volunteer Team.

• One of the first tasks would be to work up a brand document to ensure 'brand' messaging is consistent across in-store, web, social media & emails.
• Marketing plan for the year can be linked to a weekly 'hero' product – which would drives weekly stock management & purchasing focus.
• Newsletters should have more details on volunteers/volunteering and narratives around it.
• In-store product labelling could be colour coded for different sources, i.e. farmer direct, vs international and so on.
• Make more noise about organic and local produce, and zero waste products and ethics.
• More prominent 'How to Shop Alfalfa' signage and leaflets would be helpful to explain to new customers how Alfalfa works – not much wrong with current version, but it could do with a rewrite.

ACTION: Bruce Diekman to re-circulate existing 'tweaked' leaflet.

Status of Rules review:

• Core team reviewing rules within the next month – Vicki and Prema volunteered to help.
• N.B. Change to 'active member' rule needs Registrar's prior approval before going to members for approval at an AGM or SGM.

8. Discussion – moving the 2019 AGM to February 2020

Brought by Tom, Bruce & Ashton.

Preferred dates were canvassed – communication with members required this year.

MOTION: That the 2019 AGM be moved to Sunday 23rd February 2020 at Lentil As Anything or Common Ground at 5:30pm for 6:30pm start, finish by 8pm.

ACTION: Bruce Diekman to book venue – MC to communicate with members.

Moved: Bruce

Seconded: Ashton

Carried by consensus

9. Deciding & Announcing 2020 Annual Subscription Fee

This decision would normally be announced at the AGM, usually held before the end of November. As we have decided to move the 2019 AGM to February, we need to decide now what the ASF rates will be for next year. It was felt that a fee reduction would make membership more attractive, particularly in relation to our local competition, who are all fee-less, and may help us retain more members – the change will have to be actively promoted and its impact carefully monitored.

MOTION: That the Annual Subscription Fee (ASF) for next year be reduced from $20 to $10, with a pro-rata reduction to $5 from July 1 to the end of 2020 – this needs to be announced by early December at the latest.

Moved: Bruce

Seconded: Ashton

Carried by consensus

10. Any other business

Vicki and Prema have both expressed interest in MC Director positions – currently one vacancy – decisions to be made before next meeting.

Kirsten raised the issue of promotional text messages to members – as some of our competition do – to be added to next month's agenda.